Music review: Allah-Las bring 1960s guitar sounds back and more

Sunday

Mar 26, 2017 at 5:46 PMMar 26, 2017 at 5:50 PM

By Jay N. MillerFor The Patriot Ledger

Allah-Las are the Los Angeles quartet that is devoted to reveling in the kind of delectable guitar sounds that characterized rock ’n’ roll in the 1960s, but with some updated enhancements. Saturday night they provided an 80-minute time capsule trip back to those days of six-string sonic exploration and psychedelia before a giddy crowd of about 300 fans at Brighton Music Hall in Boston.

Allah-Las began in 2008, with Miles Michaud on guitar and vocals, Pedrum Siadatian on lead guitar, Spencer Dunham on bass and Matthew Correia on drums and percussion. From the time of their first few singles, critics were comparing them to ‘60s icons like The Zombies and The Kinks, and the further-afield wild sounds of Arthur Lee and Love. Their eponymous 2012 debut album continued in that style, and was hailed for the way it balanced happy and bittersweet songs.

2014’s “Worship the Sun” album continued the band’s sonic development, refining and expanding that combination of new and old elements. Last September, Allah-Las released their third album, “Calico Review,” extending even more into that garage-rock/psychedelia/surf-pop sensibility.

Saturday night Allah-Las’ 21-song set included eight of the dozen tunes from the new album, along with a good sample of their previous work. The foursome was expanded with a touring keyboardist. There were moments last night when it seemed like a tutorial in all the different sounds and moods you can coax from a rock guitar, without using a lot of special effects as much as simply crafting unique melodies. At the same time, Allah-Las favor a kind of laidback, ethereal vocal style that, no matter who’s singing (and they all sing) verges on muttering, so some times it is hard to get a handle on what the individual songs are all about.

An early highlight was “Warmed Kippers” from the latest album, an oddly entrancing stew of otherworldly guitar tones that seemed to transport the audience back about five decades. “Satisfied” rode a much more straightahead rock groove, although with a woozy guitar sound that gave the whole thing a sort of Camper Van Beethoven weirdness vibe. One of the best songs in the live set was “501-415,” which combined both the jangly textures of contemporary guitar rockers like The Feelies with that 60’s aura, yet did it over a heavier rockin’ thump.

“200 South La Brea” from the latest CD was another highlight, generating a big reaction from the crowd, which was all ages but mostly under-30. That song is a witty portrait of a street corner and the life surging through it, and the arrangement melded starkly affecting guitar notes with the smooth momentum of stellar rhythm guitar, and a rock ’n’ soul atmosphere. Guitar aficionados had to be drooling over “Famous Phone Figure,” a short song that uses the Mona Lisa as an image, and works dreamy, surf-rock guitar sounds into a melodic brew. Just a few moments later, the instrumental “Sacred Sands” utilized the kind of dazzling guitar lead lines that evoked The Ventures, all in the midst of another intoxicating surf-rock charge.

Perhaps the song closest to conventional rock was “Had It All,” which verged on buoyant pop, but still carried that ineffable air of something else below the surface. That aura was continued and expanded a bit on “Catalina,” almost as if Allah-Las sought to be a darker version of the Beach Boys. The hypnotically repetitive guitar figure driving “Terra Ignota” could be termed a showcase for rhythm guitar at its finest, yet gradually the lead guitar lines emerged with a sinuous melody that soared and brought the tune to a kind of relaxed-but-cathartic finish.

There was, no doubt, a kind of Zombies weirdness to “Autumn Dawn,” but “Could Be You” was probably the fastest tempo of the night, a chooglin’ kind of rapid-fire shuffle where Michaud’s vocal was still, incredibly enough, still in laidback-ballad mode. Such juxtapositions within the arrangements made Allah-Las set a feast for music geeks, and the momentum of all those jangly guitars provided enough rockin’ drive for casual fans too.

For their two encore songs, Allah-Las opened with the ‘60s flavored “Tell Me What’s On Your Mind,” a lively march powered by folk-rock guitar textures. Then they brought the night to a close with the smooth, midtempo haze of guitars and organ, “Catamaran.” That is one of their earlier songs, which also mashes together surf-rock, ‘60’s psychedelia, and sunny California pop into something both retro and entirely new an intriguing.